{"title":"Django Bates","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"acrobat-music-for-by-dmitri-shostakovich","title":"ACROBAT: MUSIC FOR \u0026 BY DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH","description":"ACROBAT: MUSIC FOR \u0026amp; BY DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH","brand":"SUNNYSIDE","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":44907891556586,"sku":"016728129121","price":16.63,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1899797.jpg?v=1778363822"},{"product_id":"bruckner-bernstein-serebrier-bartok-mosaic-a4-942784","title":"Bruckner, Bernstein, Serebrier, Bartók: Mosaic \/ A4 Brass Quartet","description":"\u003ctable\u003e  \u003ctbody\u003e  \u003ctr\u003e  \u003ctd\u003eSOMM Recordings is thrilled to announce the release of Mosaic featuring the label debut of the A4 Brass Quartet. Formed in 2013 at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music, the quartet comprises principal players from some of the UK’s top brass bands, including Black Dyke, Foden’s and Brighouse \u0026amp; Rastrick. Its unique blend of instruments – cornet (Jamie Smith), tenor horn (Jonathan Bates), baritone horn (Mike Cavanagh) and euphonium (Chris Robertson) – creates a unique sound that stands out from the standard brass quartet. An exciting kaleidoscope of new music and bespoke arrangements for the ensemble’s distinctive line-up, Mosaic makes a bold claim for the vibrancy and variety of contemporary brass music. Its aim, the quartet says, “is to take the listener on a journey in which they are never quite certain what lies around the corner”. First recordings include Bramwell Tovey’s Street Songs, inspired by photographs of 19th-century Salvation Army bands, three movements from Christian Overhead’s vibrant portraiture in music, 5 Miniatures (both composed for A4 Brass), an arrangement by Jonathan Bates of José Serebrier’s vivacious Cuarteto, Bates’s own virtuosic Toccata 2, and Daniel Hall’s visceral take on a notorious Hollywood murder dubbed The Black Dahlia, which won the A4 Brass Quartet’s inaugural composition competition in 2018.Lighter fare is provided by Elgar’s perennially popular Salut d’Amour, the ebullient Overture to Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, and three more arrangements by Bates: Percy Grainger’s dancing Molly on the Shore, the lovelorn jazz standard, Autumn Leaves, and Kentaro Sato’s tribute to victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Tsuna’ngari (‘connection’).Euphonium player Chris Robertson provides striking arrangements of Bruckner’s beloved motet Locus iste, and Bartók’s Six Romanian Folk Dances that exploit the quartet’s distinctively individual signature.\u003c\/td\u003e  \u003c\/tr\u003e  \u003c\/tbody\u003e  \u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"SOMM Recordings","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012931506410,"sku":"748871063822","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3992082-2731474.jpg?v=1778229440"},{"product_id":"chill-with-handel","title":"CHILL WITH HANDEL","description":"Classical Music","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013147349226,"sku":"730099678728","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/628575.jpg?v=1778189254"},{"product_id":"gershwin-the-best-of","title":"GERSHWIN (THE BEST OF)","description":"GERSHWIN (THE BEST OF)","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013176152298,"sku":"730099668620","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/350318.jpg?v=1778183992"},{"product_id":"imagine-christmas-132460","title":"Imagine Christmas","description":"\u003cp\u003eNote the three striking elements on this album, from the minute you press play. The first is the quality of the performances. These are top-level musicians bringing their same superlative artistry to Christmas favorites that they do to a Schubert quartet or Taverner score. The second is the sterling quality of the recording. If there is a sonic equivalent to sipping a hot toddy while curled up before a roaring fire, it is Sono Luminus’s peerless mixes and captures. Third–and in every way as essential as the previous two–this is a kaleidoscopic collection of styles and interpretations of beloved songs and carols that keeps one eager for the next number. With such a fetching variety of artists and approaches, you will find yourself going top-to-tail on this one. Simplicity is an underrated avenue when it comes to holiday releases, so the entries by Irina Muresanu \u0026amp; Matei Varga, Bruce Levingston, Kathryn Bates, and Skylark Vocal Ensemble are a breath of proverbial fresh air. Muresanu’s seductive playing is a glimpse into the golden age of violin technique–lush vibrato and delicious sentimentality, which infuses “White Christmas” with every bit of nostalgia one could hope for.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCONTENTS\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSteve Nelson\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eJack Rollins\u003c\/strong\u003e: Frosty the Snowman\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eTchaikovsky\u003c\/strong\u003e: The Seasons, Op. 37b XII. December \"Christmas\"\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBerlin, I\u003c\/strong\u003e: White Christmas\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMarks, J\u003c\/strong\u003e: Holly Jolly Christmas\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBlake, H\u003c\/strong\u003e: Walking in the Air\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCory Hills\u003c\/strong\u003e: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eFred Coots\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eHaven Gillespie\u003c\/strong\u003e: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGuaraldi\u003c\/strong\u003e: Christmas Time Is Here (From \"A Charlie Brown Christmas\")\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003etrad\u003c\/strong\u003e: Joy to the World\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003etrad\u003c\/strong\u003e: Good King Wenceslas\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMartin, Hugh\u003c\/strong\u003e: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGruber, F\u003c\/strong\u003e: Silent Night, H. 145\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEW\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a well-constructed program of solo piano music that valuably includes the premiere recording of Holst’s \u003ci\u003eBrook Green Suite\u003c\/i\u003e in Vally Lasker’s transcription and two pieces by Roderick Williams; one an original composition and the other his free transcription of John Ireland’s \u003ci\u003eSea Fever\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBritten’s \u003ci\u003eHoliday Diary\u003c\/i\u003e seems to be receiving more recordings and concert performances of late. I last movements from it in a highlights disc from the Husum Festival. The nippy flurries of \u003ci\u003eEarly Morning Bathe\u003c\/i\u003e are finely projected by Maria Marchant, who ensures that the \u003ci\u003eSailing\u003c\/i\u003e movement is by no means plain, though after the squalls one returns to its elysian introduction. The big contrast between the showy \u003ci\u003eFun-Fair\u003c\/i\u003e aand the subdued \u003ci\u003eNight\u003c\/i\u003e could hardly be more potent. Ronald Stevenson tended to be more-than-somewhat dismissive of the solo piano writing of some senior British composers. His \u003ci\u003ePeter Grimes Fantasy\u003c\/i\u003e, which follows with inexorable programmatic logic, is a fugue on two subjects and Britten approved of it according to the paragraph in the booklet that preserves Stevenson’s own introduction to the piece. It’s driving, powerful music, idiomatically laid out, as one would expect of the prolific executant-composer. Maria Marchant’s metronome is set to ‘action’ when it comes to John Ireland’s \u003ci\u003eBallade of London Nights\u003c\/i\u003e, which she takes at a real lick—the fastest recording of it yet to be set down, I think. If I happen to prefer the more insinuating tempi of, say, John Lenehan, Alan Rowlands and Eric Parkin, it’s certainly bracing to hear Marchant’s take, if only the once.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRoderick Williams’s \u003ci\u003eSea Fever\u003c\/i\u003e transcription opens like Rachmaninov and is vividly accomplished, whilst his own \u003ci\u003eGoodwood by the Sea\u003c\/i\u003e fits the program delightfully: richly colored, rhythmically vivid, wholly delightful. Kenneth Leighton’s Six Studies are knottier by far, a sequence of so called ‘Study-Variations’, composed in 1969. The color and astringency of the writing is always exciting, the ‘e secco’ instruction fully realized here in the second study, and the way that economy of means develops gravity in the Adagio a particularly revealing example of Leighton’s skill. The garrulous quality of the capricious fourth movement and the dramatic energy of the finale study reinforce the rewarding merits of this brief but intense cycle. Holst’s solo piano music aspires to little more than charm, though the folklorically inflected \u003ci\u003eToccata\u003c\/i\u003e is thoroughly engaging: the \u003ci\u003eBrook Green Suite\u003c\/i\u003e is similarly effortlessly charming and Lasker’s transcription—she was his assistant and ex-pupil—is fresh-faced and effective.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt ends a well selected work list that will reward close listening. Robert Matthew-Walker’s notes are very readable, though he has to strain to make connections between the works from time to time. Fine recording quality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-- MusicWeb International (Bruce McCollum)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sono Luminus","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013471260906,"sku":"053479221629","price":6.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3742483.jpg?v=1778297612"},{"product_id":"viaticum-a-journey-of-the-mind-body-and-soul","title":"Viaticum: A Journey of the Mind, Body, and Soul","description":"Classical Music","brand":"Loft","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46026521805034,"sku":"617145100528","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/344366.jpg?v=1778284037"},{"product_id":"little-motor-people","title":"LITTLE MOTOR PEOPLE","description":"Classical Music","brand":"Jazz Music Today","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027907793130,"sku":"025091906222","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/700917.jpg?v=1778283966"},{"product_id":"something-personal","title":"SOMETHING PERSONAL","description":"Classical Music","brand":"Jazz Music Today","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027914903786,"sku":"025091905423","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/627003.jpg?v=1778341898"}],"url":"https:\/\/arkivmusic.com\/collections\/django-bates.oembed","provider":"ArkivMusic","version":"1.0","type":"link"}